Lakers Rumors: Could LA Bring Back Former Fan Favorite Alex Caruso This Trade Deadline?

Former Los Angeles Lakers stalwart Alex Caruso, who along with Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is one of the LA role players from the team's 2020 championship run that the Lakers certainly regret letting go. Now, there's a possibility that he could be reacquired by his first NBA club.

Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report hears that the reeling Bulls, who just helped the Indiana Pacers end a seven-game losing streak before falling to the 14-36 Charlotte Hornets, is not looking to make big changes to their roster at the trade deadline. Why not? This current core clearly does not fit together. It's confounding.

Pincus notes that the Bulls may still be amenable to getting rid of their best healthy defender, ex-Laker Alex Caruso, or their best bench three-point shooter, Coby White. It's pretty strange for a team seemingly satisfied with its rudderless season, where there is no guarantee the Bulls will even make the playoffs, to nevertheless be open to moving off two of its more important role players.

If the Lakers want Caruso, it could cost them. Per Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, on the latest episode of his podcast Please Don't Aggregate This (sorry, Jake), relayed that the Chicago is apparently asking for two first-round draft picks to offload Caruso. He's not even normally a starter, but his defense is so terrific that he's just that valuable.

It's pretty funny that the Lakers moved off of so much important depth -- Kuzma, KCP, Montrezl Harrell and a first-rounder -- to trade for Russell Westbrook. The team also cheaped out, opting to only retain Talen Horton-Tucker instead of both THT and Alex Caruso in the summer of 2021, to lower its luxury tax bill. Though Westbrook has re-emerged as a useful role player in his new gig off the bench, it's clear that Kuzma, Caldwell-Pope, and Caruso are all, individually, better players than Westbrook is right now, full stop.

Is Caruso worth two first-rounders? Maybe for a team that's closer to a ring, and has more than just two first-rounders to burn (i.e. LA). If the price can be talked down to, say, one unprotected or lightly-protected first-round selection and a second-round pick, it's worth doing for the Lake Show.